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tv   Government Access Programming  SFGTV  January 23, 2019 10:00pm-11:01pm PST

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just to be able to stay in my community and continue to help the residents who live here and continue to see my neighborhoods move into new housing, it's been a real joy. it's been a real joy. >> hello, everyone here i am a london breed. i am the mayor of the city and county of san francisco, and i am so very excited to be here with each and every one of you here. many of you probably know i grew up not too far from here on eddie and laguna in public housing that was managed by the san francisco housing authority.
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we knew this property here was joe's has been managed by the san francisco housing authority, and some of you who have lived here for years have been frustrated with the elevators, with the pipes in the bathrooms, and some of the challenges that exist and we know that too often too many of our residents who live in public housing have not been given the support and the resources, and the things that they need to be able to live in dignity. today we celebrate the renovation of 138 units, of housing for seniors and people with disabilities. and i am proud of the work that we have done to help to lead the way to renovate over 3500 units of public housing throughout the city and county of san francisco as i said before kata, i grew up in public housing, and i lived in plaza east for over 20 years
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of my life. the frustration that came with making the phone call to get something fixed, and waiting weeks, and sometimes months -- sometimes months for things to be fixed, my grandmother raised me, in just the challenges we experience with having to get basic service was so frustrating and when i first became a member of the board of supervisors, one of the things i asked mayor lee to do is to work with me with focusing our attention and resources on the rehabilitation of the thousands of units that exist citywide. so many amazing people helped lead the way in moving forward and what i think is an amazing amount of time to get these units rehabbed so you have a safe and affordable clean and
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nice great place to live, to grow, and to thrive. i am grateful that as mayor, what's happening now is we are seeing the fruits of our labor over the past couple of years, and in mayor lee's owner, i want to celebrate this, because not too many mayors would have taken the kind of risk that he did to do exactly what we are doing here today. i just felt strongly that we couldn't wait another 10-15 years, we couldn't continue to weight and say, we will figure it out, we will get the money, through our program, we have been able to get creative about solutions to invest the dollars in you, to invest the dollars and making sure that the places that you live in are great places to live in, just like anywhere else in san francisco. i am excited about this, the jfk tower, in the 2698 california
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are both great examples of our rad program which has had a tremendous success. i'm looking forward to doing even more of these developments, and i want to thank mercy housing, the john stewart company, bank of america for the financing, the mayor's office of housing, and the housing authority, the u.s. department of housing and urban development , also known as h.u.d., because in trying to do exactly what we have been trying to accomplish here, it does take a village. it also takes the will, it also takes a great community partners , and i hope you enjoy your new double paned windows, which i actually don't even have i hope you enjoy your great community space and how beautiful and clean and bright and more open it is, i am looking around, i can't even believe what i am seeing right now. this is absolutely amazing, and it belongs to the residents of
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this community. congratulations on this great success project, i am so looking forward to doing so many more throughout san francisco and i would like to take this opportunity to introduce your representative, the person who continues to advocate for resources for district taught about where you reside, who is a great member of the board of supervisors, a great advocate for communities, and will always be there for you, ladies and gentlemen, your supervisor, catherine stefani. [applause] >> thank you mayor breed. we are so lucky to have her leading our city. good morning, everybody. her remarks were absolutely amazing, and it is the r.a.d. program, it is reshaping public housing in san francisco for the better. the program has provided so many people across the city with
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rehabilitated quality and affordable housing. i cannot state how thrilled i am to be standing here today for the grand opening of this renovated tower. this tower has been iconic in district two for so long. it is beautiful, it is colourful , and i'm so happy we are standing here today in this renovation. also for 2698 california, which will provide together 138 units of affordable housing for seniors and individuals with disabilities. i would like to say thank you to so many people for making this possible. first, mayor breed, you have made affordable housing a key part of your agenda as we face in affordability crisis. your leadership on this issue is inspiring and absolutely essential for those in need of housing, and your experience, your how you talk about it, it connects all of us to you, and i think it reinforces the need for affordable housing and how important it is for our city. and doug shoemaker and everyone at mercy housing for ensuring
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that jfk towers and 2698 california are not only beautiful, but safe and affordable places that residents can live for decades. paul taggart architects and rivera consulting group for your work in making this project happen, in making these buildings seismically safer. and also barbara smith who is the acting executive director at the s.f. housing authority. thank you for all that you do and taking all our calls when you get them. and also liz, who i just met this morning at bank of america, and bank of america for the financing. we cannot do this without you. finally and most importantly, the people who call out these amazing two buildings and district want what their home. it really is an honor to serve you as your district two supervisor, and i want you to know i am here for you. call me anytime. we can work together on issues. i would love to come and visit periodically. please know we are here for you always. the work we are celebrating
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today has created a more welcoming community, and better housing. j.f.k. towers has a new community room. i think we are in it right now, a patio for residents to enjoy, and the units have modern amenities and new appliances, which are so essential. every person living here deserves to be able to easily access their home, and use of community spaces of the building this renovation has improved the elevators which is so necessary, as mayor breed is said, and enhance accessibility features to eliminate barriers to access. finally, san francisco must be prepared in case of an earthquake, and the fact that we have seismically safe buildings is so important. we agree that san francisco is one of the most beautiful places in the world his. i think pacific heights and district two is one of the most beautiful places in san francisco, so i'm really happy to be here today to celebrate with you, and no i am here for you going forward to. thank you mayor breed for all that you do. at this time, i would like to introduce and think again doug
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shoemaker, the president of mercy housing. [applause] >> good morning everybody. we are so blessed to have elected officials like the two that just spoke here. we work in a lot of different communities around california and a lot of communities around the country, and more often and not to, your trying to convince elected officials of the importance of affordable housing in san francisco we have the opposite. we have officials that lead the charge. if you think about places in this country where you would see public housing preserved and strengthened in the most expensive real estate in the country, and in neighborhoods like pacific heights, i can tell you this is an all too rare occurrence across the country, and a testament to the tremendous agreement amount just among san franciscans. we really appreciate your leadership on this topic and on future ones. for folks who don't know, there is more work to be done with the housing authority. we are working with barbara and the mayor and the supervisors
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around the remaining public housing that really needs to get to the level of quality, and we are looking forward to more support around that topic as we move forward and make better reality for your colleagues and friends and others living around the community. i will introduce the next speaker who i have known for very many years. she has -- the last time i talk to her i think she told me that the number of housing authority directors that she previously worked for was greater than my age. i am 24, so that is a lot. in all seriousness, around the country, but in particular around san francisco, the housing authority has done a really difficult work with very few resources compared to what the need is. nobody needs to be in a situation like that and you're trying desperately to get all of that done, and you know the federal government is not sending you enough money to get it done, but you have to do everything you can to make it
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work. art barbara smith has been one of those people who stood up to that challenge, she has done the work, at times desperately under resource. finally on these r.a.d. projects at on the hope s.f. projects, resource the right amount. she has done this work without complaint, with a characteristic smile, and has been a real champion of the work. i want to thank them for all their great work. >> your way too kind. we could not do it without partners without mercy and leaders like mayor lundin breed, and our new supervisor stefani. so we are really thrilled with j.f.k. towers and 2698 california, and the other public housing high-rise buildings that are getting the improvements that they've needed for so long to preserve this wonderful resource for our residents.
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we are especially excited to see this crescent shaped midcentury modern j.f.k. towers rehabilitated with its primary colors, restored to its original appearance in the front, but with all kinds of improvements, the new community room, the new office space, and improvements to the residence's units. we are really excited about this pic i don't know if you know, but john bowles was the architect. he also designed other areas. we are preserving and keeping this building for long-term affordable housing for our seniors and disabled residents. before the rental assistance demonstration program, i would get into bed at night, and i would pray that none of our senior and disabled residents in our high-rise buildings would be without elevator service, and also, the worst yet, be stuck in an elevator. all too often i would get a call
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during the night and have to send an emergency repair service to address the problem and i were a duty officer to help the residents who were stuck in the lobbies or needed things from there apartments. i know how stressful the situation was for our residents, but with declining federal dollars, the authority just wasn't able to keep up with repairs and the work that buildings needed. this enormous conversion effort, over $2.2 billion in financing, and over $750 million in capital improvements really required require the brilliance, dedication and support of an incredible team beginning with mayor ed lee, our new mayor, london breed, and including the mayor touch office of housing and community development. i know we have olivia ely here, kate hartley who was also instrumental in all of their
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support. mercy housing, bank of america, h.u.d., we don't have h.u.d. here right now, but hopefully we will have them here soon. the federal home won't bank of san francisco, freddie mac multifamily, our commissioners who were put many hours into approving all the documents that it took to put this together, authority staff who worked very hard throughout the conversion, the board of supervisors, nappy brothers contractors who really did carry out the work beautifully, and others. thank you to all who made this possible. for j.f.k. towers and 2698 california and other public housing residents. i want to give us special thanks to our j.f.k. residents. raise your hand if you are a j.f.k. resident. we have a lot of you hear while supplies. >> and 2698 california.
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he lived through this process where you had to temporarily relocate, and you had to live in a construction zone, and thank you for your faith in the process, we hope you really enjoy the new housing and all the improvements that you have. thank you very much to everyone. [applause] >> all rights. we are in the special part of the program where we list lots of names, but i do want to spend a second to acknowledge the partnership that was here. japanese-american religious foundation and the john stewart foundation, and mercy decided early on that when we are looking for the opportunity to work on these buildings that we would do better partnering to compete to do this work. this is part of the ethos of san francisco. we lucked out there, and we said we can do this better together. i want to acknowledge jack and margaret to her on the back and responsible for the california property and others.
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i don't see will hear from the foundation yet, there he is. great. the partnership is fantastic and i think it is part of making sure that we are effective stewards of the trust the public is putting in us as residents. it was mentioned already, but mike and bob are here and they have led this work. i want to -- maybe the rest of the folks who worked on this could raise their hands. bob, you can raise your hand. i know you are trying to hide back there. [applause] >> the work of being a general contractor in an occupied building is a special thing and we knew we had a really good choice. if they have done great work for many people around the city on this work, and a lot of it has nothing to do with understanding construction, but to relate to people as people. i know paulette and our architects, i want to recognize
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them both for our great work on that big i don't know what happened in the hallway, but thank you for whoever did that. take a second to acknowledge joe should the way the work happens at mercy is very much team driven. no one is individually responsible. with that said, this was an unusual project, and i want to say thank you to tim and mike and others. i think mike kaplan himself probably took more calls on this project than he'll ever take on a project again in his life. mike and i are hanging out somewhere, with thank you for your perseverance on that. if you work with mercy, please raise your hand to receive thanks on that. [applause] our great property management staff, i want to acknowledge our board chair, gillian burgess, he does not live very far from here so she can come visit. one small anecdote i want to add about the primary colors of the doors, someone door somewhere along the process, we were offered money to paint them different colors. i'm happy to say we didn't. i think they are part of what
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makes this a very iconic property in san francisco. it really stands out. the world needs less boring buildings. i'm happy that we have a bright building that everyone can spy when you say, which one is j.f.k. towers, and you can say it is a rainbow coloured one with all the doors, and everyone will know what building it is. we do not need another beige building. with that, i want to acknowledge that one part of what made r.a.d. really only in san francisco, we often talk about how special we are in san francisco, and generally it is true. sometimes we are exaggerating. on this project, i think if you look around the country and what was able to be done around public housing preservation, there really are very few examples that if you look at the trouble they are having in new york city and all around the country was doing what san francisco got ahead of, you can see what a special opportunity this was, and how much work it took to get there. part of doing that was to recognize that we had to have an unusual financial partnership.
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to -- san francisco developers were very special people. we want to be treated differently on every project. it was the mayor touch office of housing that said we would not be different from each other, we would all do it the same way, which frankly hurts. we did not like to hear that message. with that said, we didn't have a choice, and may be that is a lesson for leadership, but they turned to a single financial partner in order to make sure they made this work. there are few organizations in the work, -- in a world, corporate america took a step up to the challenge for a financing perspective and a philanthropy perspective. we were lucky early on to have the partnership of bank of america on this project. is quite exceptional. i want to bring up now liz minnick who is the bay area of marketing executive for bank of america to talk about it, but i want to say, come on up, i want to say the tremendous work of the bank over the years, and
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appreciation for the team in terms of working on this and partnering with us on this. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much and good morning everyone. as a fellow district to neighbor , it is so very special to be here today, and i want to thank our two elected officials, mayor breed and supervisor stefani for everything you have done in your ongoing support. bank of america is thrilled to have been able to be the financial partner of the san francisco r.a.d. redevelopment and financing $2.2 billion for this project. not only the largest in our history, but the largest in the united states. it really is something special. we think we are special in san francisco, and especially from a bank of america standpoint. we were founded 115 years ago as the bank of italy. as we think about our legacy here in the city, certainly after our founding with the 1996 earthquake, and the importance of getting people back in their homes, that is what we are able
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to do. thank you to all of the people involved. thank you for the relationship we have with mercy housing. thank you to the san francisco department of housing, to get our elected officials, and to everyone a blank -- bank of america who made this possible. thank you so much. [applause] >> all right. probably the most interesting part of all these presentations is withstanding all of our excellent talk. it is really to have a chance to hear from the resident about what the experience has been like. we do this work for residents, that is the reason for mercy housing to work. and i think many of the people in the room, that is a reason why we are here. i want to share a few words about their experience at j.f.k. towers. thank you john for taking the time, and being willing to share your story. [applause]
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>> i believe that mercy housing makes life worth living. to illustrate, let me tell you in the -- an interesting story. a personal experience. one day when mercy first came here and people were gathering around, and not quite used to anything yet, that one day, a staff member from mercy housing came in from outside and he saw me and said, john, i saw your picture on a meals on wheels vehicle. i said, you didn't see the other 19 of them in the truck. , he then called me mr john, a
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gentleman is standing in the doorway right here. that started something i would never have expected. i would come down in the morning , and angel in the office or mary, our manager, would say, good morning mr john. that grew. then it was staff, it was tenants, but mostly, it was housing and construction. they would get in the elevator with me, and they would say, mr john, and one man said, i want to show you something, and he took out a photo of his infant daughter, sharing it with me. i thought this is very rare.
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this is extremely nice. that went on for some time. everywhere i would go, it would be mr john. i would go out for a walk, and the men would be outside doing something at the fountain, have a nice walk, mr john. i would come back and say, did you have a nice walk, mr john? then they began showing the part -- more pictures of family, particularly the children, and i thought, well, this is very nice at my 93rd year, and so then came a very interesting time. near navy construction had left the building -- except for a handful. they were all done here. they came and said goodbye. they knocked on the door of my unit to tell me goodbye, mr john
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and then came the day where there were about a dozen left on the rooftop just above my unit, working on waterproofing. they had a problem. while i'm standing in the doorway, waiting for meals on wheels delivery, the supervisor came and said, my crew will be leaving about 11:00 o'clock. would you stand in the doorway and say goodbye? and by the way, after you've done that, stay in the doorway until they've gone down the walkway and have left that area, that balcony. about 11:00 o'clock, with the door open, i heard them coming down from upstairs. i stood out in the doorway, they came by, and all very cheerful,
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and very pleasant, and then they walked down to go to the elevator. they didn't go in the elevator, they stayed out of the balcony, about 12 people turned and looked at me, and in a cacophony of languages, english, spanish, i think arabic, someone said, and i thought, this was interesting, and when they have finished, the supervisor spoke in a very big voice and said, they said, goodbye mr john. so living in housing is an uplifting experience, and at my 93 years of age, i could not have asked for more. not just the building, it is what you do. and i thought, i am a very lucky man.
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thank you all for coming. will be glad to see you again next time. [applause] >> i'm sure i just did a very bad job of reading my notes, and in here i was supposed to say thank you mr john. i will do it now. thank you mr john. i want to acknowledge two more things. i want to echo what has been said previously about the residence and living through a rehab, we thank you very much for living with a rehab. we look forward to working with you over time. i hope we can continue this great relationship going forward , and i welcome your feedback about it. i hope we continue to do all the special things that it sounds like the nibbi folks did with you, mr john. i want to acknowledge mr davis
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who is responsible for the artwork and the music, he is a resident here, and has been a resident for 18 years. [applause] >> with that, we will call our program to a close. i want to thank everyone, especially the mayor and the supervisor for getting out here on a rainy day. we will do a ribbon-cutting, which will occur outside where he says, and then there will be tours for the j.f.k. towers the start of the elevators. there are also tours a 2698 california that will be occurring, 15 minutes from now. not occurring. not occurring. notorious. yes, they are. okay, yes, they are. if you want to tour 2698 california, jack and margaret are hiding out the back. they were hiding, the camera is
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trained on them. thank you very much everyone. [♪] >> hi, i'm lawrence corn field. welcome to building san francisco. we have a special series, stay safe. we're looking at earthquake issues. and today we're going to be talking with a residential building owner about what residential building owners and tenants can and should do before earthquakes and after earthquakes. ♪ ♪
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>> we're here at this wonderful spur exhibit on mission street in san francisco and i have with me today my good friend george. thanks for joining me, george. and george has for a long time owned residential property here in san francisco. and we want to talk about apartment buildings and what the owner's responsibilities might be and what they expect their tenants to do. and let's start by talking a little bit about what owners can do before an earthquake and then maybe after an earthquake. >> well, the first thing, lawrence, would be to get together with your tenants and see if they have earthquake insurance or any renters insurance in place because that's going to be key to protecting them in the event of a quake. >> and renters insurance, there are two kinds of insurance. renters insurance coffers damage to goods and content and so forth. earthquake insurance is a
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separate policy you get after you get renters insurance through the california earthquake authority, very inexpensive. and it helps owners and it helps tenants because it gives relocation costs and it pays their rent. this is a huge impact on building owners. >> it's huge, it really is. you know, a lot of owners don't realize that, you know, when there is an earthquake, their money flow is going to stop. how are they going to pay their mortgages, how are they going to pay their other bills, how are they going to live? >> what else can property owners do in residential rental housing before an earthquake? >> well, the first thing you want to do is get your property assessed. find out what the geology is at your site. get an expert in to look at structural and nonstructural losses. the structural losses, a lot of times, aren't going to be that bad if you prepare. an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. get in there and get your property assessed and figure it out. >> so, what is a nonstructural
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issue that might cause losses? >> well, you know, pipes, for instance. pipes will whip around during an earthquake. and if they're anchored in more numerous locations, that whipping won't cause a breakage that will cause a flood. >> i've heard water damage is a major, major problem after earthquakes actually. >> it is. that's one of the big things. a lot of things falling over, ceilings collapsing. but all of this can be prevented by an expert coming in and assessing where those problem areas and often the fixes are really, really cheap. >> who do you call when you want to have that kind of assessment or evaluation done? >> the structural engineering community is great. we have the structural engineers association of northern california right here in san francisco. they're a wealth of information and resources. >> what kinds of things might you encourage tenants to do besides simply get tenants renters insurance and
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earthquake insurance, what else do you think tenants should do? >> i think it's really important to know if they happen to be in the building where is the safest place for them to go when the shaking starts. if they're out of the building, whats' their continuity plan for connecting with family? they should give their emergency contact information to their resident manager so that the resident manager knows how to get in touch. and have emergency supplies on hand. the tenants should be responsible to have their extra water and flashlights and bandages and know how to use a toilet when there's no sewage and water flows down. and the owners of the building should be proactive in that regard as well. >> so, george, thank you so much for joining us. that was really great. and thanks to spur for hosting us here in this wonderful exhibit. and thank you for joining us . >> i just feel like this is what
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i was born to do when i was a little kid i would make up performances and daydream it was always performing and doing something i feel if i can't do that than i can't be e me. >> i just get excited and my nickname is x usher my mom calls me i stuck out like a sore thumb for sure hey everybody i'm susan kitten on the keys from there, i working in vintage clothing and chris in the 30's
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and fosz and aesthetic. >> i think part of the what i did i could have put on my poa he focus on a lot of different musical eras. >> shirley temple is created as ahsha safai the nation with happens and light heartenness shirley temple my biggest influence i love david boo and el john and may i west coast their flamboyant and show people (singing) can't be unhappy as a dr. murase and it is so fun it is a joyful instrument i learned more about music by playing the piano it was interesting the way i was
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brought up the youth taught me about music he picked up the a correspond that was so hard my first performing experience happened as 3-year-old an age i did executive services and also thanks to the lord and sank in youth groups people will be powering grave over their turk i'll be playing better and better back la i worked as places where men make more money than me i was in bands i was treated as other the next thing i know i'm in grants performing for a huge protection with a few of my friends berry elect and new berry elect and can be ray was then
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and we kept getting invited back you are shows got better we made it to paris in 2005 a famous arc we ended up getting a months residencey other than an island and he came to our show and started writing a script based on our troop of 6 american burr elect performs in france we were woman of all this angels and shapes and sizes and it was very exciting to be part of the a few lettering elect scene at the time he here he was bay area born and breed braces and with glossaries all of a sudden walking 9 red carpet in i
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walgreens pedestrian care. >> land for best director that was backpack in 2010 the french love this music i come back here and because of film was not released in the united states nobody gave a rats ass let's say the music and berry elect and performing doesn't pay very much i definitely feel into a huge depression especially, when it ended i didn't feel kemgd to france anymore he definitely didn't feel connected to the scene i almost feel like i have to beg for tips i hey i'm from the bay area and an artist you don't make a living it changed my represent tar to appeal and the folks that are coming into the wars these days
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people are not listening they love the idea of having a live musician but don't really nurture it like having a potted plant if you don't warrant it it dizzy sort of feel like a potted plant (laughter) i'm going to give san francisco one more year i've been here since 1981 born and raised in the bay area i know that is not for me i'll keep on trying and if the struggle becomes too hard i'll have to move on i don't know where that will be but i love here so so much i used to dab he will in substances i don't do that i'm sober and part of the being is an and sober and happy to be able to play music and perform and express myself if i make.
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>> few people happy of all ages i've gone my job so i have so stay is an i feel like the piano and music in general with my voice together i feel really powerful and strong
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>> the goal is simple. it's to raise women's voices. >> learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. >> we had own over 300 -- over 300 people who signed up for the one-on-one counseling today. >> i think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively.
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the assessor's office is a big one. there are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in san francisco. one of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2.6 billion worth of revenue to the city. often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes.
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for every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our police officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. but i think what most people don't know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. so it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local school districts. so this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. it's an interesting place to be, i have to say. my colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. in my day-to-day life, i don't think about that role, being the only asian american assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of san francisco well. by being the only asian
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american assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. i hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. i grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the united states. when my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the united states. they had very little money, and they didn't know how to speak english very well. they came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i can't imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. so my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my
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mom worked as a seamstress sewing. as we grew up, we eventually had a small business. i very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. we went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. it really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing public service the way that i do. one of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. we lived in southern california at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. i can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. it was incredibly scary because we didn't know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood.
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and i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. it stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. >> make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. >> and then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why you're doing what you're doing, you know, i think you can't go wrong. it's funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. i became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, i'm shopping with friends and